Tuesday, April 25, 2017

It's been a while since I've posted, in part because life has been bananas, and in part because my weekends have been busy with house projects. So now I'm ready to do my happy shiplap dance!

And yes, I've obviously watched too much Fixer Upper. But come on... if you could do anything you wanted in your house, wouldn't you channel a little Chip and Joanna gorgeous farmhouse shiplap? Of course you would. And of course I did. We chose the wall behind the vanity since it's the one we'll be facing most of the time, and because I think the oil-rubbed bronze fixtures and wood vanity will look amazing against that backdrop.

Like most decorative shiplap, ours is totally faked. It's not the main wall material at all - it's just laid on top of drywall. This is for fire safety, and in this case also for moisture resistance since we're in a bathroom.

That wet environment raised another issue that we wouldn't have faced in another room. Most Pinterest tutorials on adding shiplap to a wall don't use real tongue-and-groove paneling. They use straight boards, and create the look of a tongue by leaving a small gap that exposes the drywall behind. However, we were worried that water would get between the wood and the drywall, resulting in mold, mildew, and rot. So we sprang for the real thing, which completely covers the wall in wood.

We sanded and primed the wood first for easy painting later. Then we just cut it to length and nailed the boards up!

This would have been a lot easier if the studs were in any kind of reasonable places. But since this wall originally had a niche cut out of it, there's a weird angle running through the inside. Plus, the bottom half of the wall is full of pipes and electrical wires. Thankfully, my brilliant husband thought to take a photograph of the inside of the wall before we put up the drywall. That little inspiration has been a lifesaver!

Also, see those perfectly-placed holes near the ceiling? Those are where the j-boxes for the sconces will go. The electrician refused to install them until the vanity was in place. Unfortunately, we realized when we were ready to start the shiplap that the wires were poking through the drywall in completely the wrong place. So the entire project was delayed for a week while we measured (and measured, and measured again), drilled the holes, and pulled the wire through. Which was further complicated by the wonky framing inside the wall.

This part was not fun.

Then my darling husband unleashed his inner perfectionist and caulked the living daylights out of everything. He said he was going upstairs to fill in the gaps. Six hours later I found him carefully smoothing every single joint with his pinky finger. We're still going to be renovating this house when we're 104, but at least it will look amazing.

Then finally... paint!

Now all we have to do is install the window trim, then call the pros (the plumber, electrician and shower-door installers) to hook everything up, and sit back while our bathroom materializes! So exciting!!!